The rural property market around Orange is set to ramp up in spring after the drought contributed to quiet sales in autumn and winter. However, rural real estate agents said there was no indication the drought was forcing people to sell their farms near Orange. Benchmark Rural and Lifestyle Director David Dent said poor condition of pastures due to the drought contributed to owners not putting their properties on the market over the past six months. “There will be a lot coming on the market in the next two weeks,” he said. “Most of the properties are predominantly hobby farms and lifestyle farms [within 25 kilometres of Orange],” he said. “Rural properties are usually very quiet over the winter.” He said recent rains were greening up pastures to make them more presentable for selling. Townsend Real Estate Orange principal Stephen Townsend said he had an unprecedented four premium rural properties for sale including Ashburton at Borenore. He said their anticipated sale prices totalled about $11-12 million. “They are pretty special properties,” he said. Mr Townsend said he would normally have only one property of this kind on sale at a time. He said he had fielded enquiries from interstate for the farms while some of them were likely to be bought by other local farmers. And he expected a 30 hectare property on Huntley Road would suit local business people. Mr Townsend said the drought had not contributed to the four farms going on the market now. “What drought does in rural properties is it knocks buyer confidence about,” he said. READ MORE: Open houses in and around Orange on Saturday, September 8 | Videos, photos, map “They are thinking ‘When is this drought going to end? “There has been a lot of money spent on hay and feed, however droughts rarely affect land values.” He said he expected spring would be “business as usual” after lighter sales earlier this year. “Our autumn was ordinary and our winter was very tough because of the amount of frosts we had,” he said.